Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says he prefers to appoint military men over 'lazy' civilians

The Filipino president recently appointed retired Major General Alexander Balutan as the new general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte seen in this file photo has said he prefers military men over 'lazy' civiliansReuters

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said that military men are active and follow orders quickly, unlike civilians who are too lazy for any task. The president was speaking to scout rangers in the Filipino province of Bulacan on Thursday (15 September).

Duterte added that it was because of the difficulty in getting civilians to carry out instructions that he was including more military personnel in his official family.

"I'm not trying to, you know, derogate the other employees of government. But these civilians, they're so difficult to give orders to. 'Tapolan' in Bisaya, lazy. You can't get them to move quickly, especially during times of emergency," Duterte said.

The Filipino president recently appointed retired Major General Alexander Balutan as the new general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). He said he had a tough time looking for someone to lead the PCSO, which, he believed was abused by syndicates and gangsters.

He also said he could not find a new PCSO chief from among civilians "because I doubted their integrity and everything".

According to reports, Balutan was supposed to be the chief of the Bureau of Corrections, but in the last minute was chosen to head PCSO as Duterte wanted a "berdugo" (executioner) who would clean up the PCSO as it was losing billions of pesos a year in taxes that could have benefited the Filipinos.

The outspoken president has been in the news in recent times over several of his controversial remarks. In early September, he had warned US President Barack Obama not to question him on extrajudicial killings and said, "Son of a b***h, I will swear at you". However, he later said he regretted swearing at Obama.